Simple Saving Savvy has a NEW DOMAIN!

I have purchased a domain name for Simple Saving Savvy. The blog will still be hosted by blogger but the web address is http://www.simplesavingsavvy.net.

Also, our new design is just about set to go! Stay tuned.

New Look for Simple Saving Savvy!!

I am so excited! Simple Saving Savvy is in the process of getting a makeover. That's right! A whole new look.

Hint: it has nothing to do with the graphic I posted at the top of this post.

The goal is to be a little more professional, a little more trendy, a little less cluttered and a whole lot easier to navigate, while still keeping all the things you love about Simple Saving Savvy.

I'm not exactly sure when the change will take place, but rest assured it will be soon. You're gonna love it!

Launching Today !! The Frugal Map from Bargain Briana ~

Today, January 18, Bargain Briana will be launching a brand new feature to her blog...The Frugal Map. I am very excited about this project. The Frugal Map was developed out of the desire to help readers find their perfect blog match. This can be done in several ways. Whether you are looking for a blog in your geographic location, one that covers specific stores or one that matches up with your frugal style...you'll be able to find it quickly with The Frugal Map.

 

Some of The Frugal Map's unique features include:

 

• Frugal Map Function: Allows users to find a blogger near their location in an interactive map format.
• Search Function: Allows users to search multiple blogs across the Frugal Map Network.
• Hottest Deal RSS Feed: Gives users the most recent hot deals from the bloggers in the Frugal Map Network.
• Specific Store Landing Pages: Allows users a one stop resource for for store deals including blogger store deal links, resources, and FAQ for the particular store.
• Specific Blogger Landing Pages: Allows users to read more about their favorite blogs and connect with them via Twitter, Facebook, RSS, and specific store deal links.
• Embeddable iFrame: Embed The Frugal Map on your blog as a resource for your readers

 

And Briana is also offering bloggers the opportunity to include this tool on their blogs by embedding it in their own site. How cool is that?!

 

So head on over and check it out and then come back here and let me know what you think!

New email address ~

Please note that I have changed my contact email address for any blog questions, comments or deal alerts to simplesavingsavvy(at)gmail(dot)com.

Please help me keep things efficient and streamlined by contacting me at this new email address with anything concerning Simple Saving Savvy.

You may still use my current email address for emails of a personal nature.

Thank you so much for continuing to read Simple Saving Savvy!

Update on my whereabouts ~

WHEW!! The week before Christmas has me running.

My oldest daughter, Brittani (19 and in her Sophomore year of college) is in town for about five days so I'm trying to get as much girl time in as possible.

Today we went to the Shidler Elementary Christmas Party which is sponsored by FaithWorks of the Innercity and helped the kids open their presents. Such a blessing!

Tomorrow and Sunday we are readying stage decorations and attending dress rehearsals for the Kingdom Kids (the childrens' musical program at Faith Bible Church) production, "Okie Dokie Christmas". All five of our younger kids (ages 8-11) are in the program. So cute!

And on top of that, we're fitting in basketball games and an early family Christmas Celebration.

So unfortunately I will not be around much until next week.

For your Walgreens and CVS Deals, check out Common Sense With Money.

And for Target, Stretching A Buck is always a great choice.

See you next week!

Gift Baskets Delivered to Positive Tomorrows ~

By now you've noticed that I'm a little slow on the draw with getting this week's Homeland deals posted. Well, I have a very good excuse. Not only was a good portion of my day spent chasing the AWESOME midweek deals at Walgreens, but I met up with a friend from church and we delivered the gift baskets you see below along with bags full of personal care items to some of the children who attend school at Positive Tomorrows.

It was such a blessing! The children at Positive Tomorrows are homeless. Most live in shelters, moving from shelter to shelter depending on the room available and some live in their cars.

They were so full of enthusiasm, introducing themselves, shaking my hand, expressing gratitude for our offerings.

And I left thanking God for allowing me to be a part of this project. For many of these children, this will be the FIRST time they've ever been able to give their moms (or dads) ANY KIND OF GIFT! And they were so excited!

Pierre brings Pet Deals to Simple Saving Savvy ~

Meet Pierre! He's the newest edition to our family.

I've never really posted much on pet deals, mainly because no one ever requested that I do so. But now I'm finding myself in need of some major savings on cat litter and cat food so that I can stay within my grocery budget.

I won't be inundating you with deals on pet supplies, but pet owners will be happy to see some great pet deals posted here at Simple Saving Savvy.

First off:

I found the Purina Friskies Natural Sensations cat treats at Walmart for $1.86. There's a FREE coupon in the SS 9/27.

Also, there's a BOGO coupon for Purina Friskies Selects Indoor Cat Food, Any 5.5 Oz. Cans in the SS 9/13. They're $0.67 at Walmart so you end up paying $0.34 ea.

Coupons.com has the following coupons:

Milk Bone® Essentials PLUS+™ Long Lasting Chew item ~ $2.00 off

Purina Busy Chewnola item ~ BOGO

Hartz Nodor Litter Spray ~ $1.00 off

Tidy Cats Litter ~ $1.00 off

Purina Mighty Dog ~ $1.00 off four cans

And from RedPlum.com:

Meaty Bone Dog Biscuits ~ BOGO

Still Slammed!!!

Hello Savvy Savers!

My busy week, the one that was supposed to slow down today?...well, it didn't! I have another full schedule and have not even glanced at the Homeland or GFF Foods circular for this week.

So I am referring you to Christi's (2) Cents. She does a great job of posting the Homeland deals. This will get you started and I'll get mine posted tomorrow (maybe this afternoon?) so you can fill in the gaps.

Where the heck has she been???

I'm sure many of you are muttering this under your breath about now.

I know I haven't been around much the last few days. I've been swamped! Between weekly shopping, a coupon class, regular routine and halloween costumes, I've been so busy my head is spinning.

I should be able to get to the Homeland ad tomorrow morning and from there it should be smooth sailing...I hope...I'm pryaying!

Thanks for your patience and undestanding!

Welcome New Readers ~

Welcome to Simple Saving Savvy! I'm so glad you're here.

If you are new to coupons, then you might check out the posts here.

I try very hard to stick to a routine posting schedule but appreciate your understanding when life does not allow this. My husband and children remain my number one ministry which means sometimes the blog gets put aside.

If you desire, you can subscribe to Simple Saving Savvy by email or in an RSS reader.

I hope that you will find Simple Saving Savvy to be efficient, user-friendly, encouraging and challenging. We not only advocate wise stewardship of our financial resources, but also encourage wise stewardship of our lives by living intentionally.
If you have any questions at all, please email me at SimpleSavingSavvy(at)gmail(dot)com. If you have any feedback or ideas for future posts, please email me at the same address.

It is my pleasure to serve you!

Buy for Less Update ~

Fifty eight Simple Saving Savvy readers recently participated in a poll published on the blog. If you only read the blog through an RSS reader or by email, then chances are you didn't see the poll.

However, out of the 58 people who took the time to give their feedback, 38 of those people say they NEVER shop at Buy for Less. Nine people said they shop there only for the "too good to pass up" deals.

Due to the results of this poll, I have decided to no longer feature weekly matchup for Buy for Less. I will, however, continue to view the ad on a weekly basis and post those deals that I feel are just too good to pass up.

I was led to the decision to publish the poll because I was finding that shopping weekly at Buy for Less was not beneficial to my family. Other than the occasional meat and weekly deals, their prices are generally higher than both Crest and Walmart. Also, they are not friendly to internet printable coupons. And they offer no other beneficial features like doubling coupons.

My goal is to provide Simple Saving Savvy readers with AMAZING deals! To do this takes time. I feel that it is more important to invest my time in those deals that I KNOW will benefit your families.

Thank you for your understanding.

Cookbook Fundraiser for Today's Generation ~

Today's Generation is selling a cookbook for a fundraiser. The cookbook contains 18 original recipes and is selling for $2.00 each. If anyone is interested in purchasing a cookbook please contact Candace Bradshaw at (405)240-7389 or Dianna Booze at (405) 240- 8367. All proceeds go directly to Today's Generation for the November 4, 2009 Speak Out. You can also find Today's Generation on Myspace, Facebook, My Yearbook, Tagged, Hi5, and Twitter.

Happy Birthday to Me ~

Hubby and I usually pick out our own birthday gifts. We both know what we want so we discuss it before hand and then go buy our own present.

My birthday has come and gone but here's what I picked out...When I first started using a coupon binder, I bought a really cheap binder. Not a very wise choice as it didn't take long to wear out. After a few bad choices (read cheap binders) I finally cracked down and spent about $7 on a heavy duty PVC binder. I used that for over a year and it held up fine.

But this year while shopping for school supplies, I saw this binder at Walgreens for $17.99. I kept an eye on it for quite awhile and told my husband, this is what I want for my birthday. So a week after my birthday, I went to Walgreens and splurged on their last gray/pink one.

I love it! It holds all my coupons, has a zippered compartment inside to keep my lists w/ coupon matchups and it also has a handy dandy accordian file that is accessible from inside of out.I also bought a larger hanging file holder. This one is twice the size of my old one plus it's easier to transport for shopping trips (no, I don't carry this into the store, but I do keep it in the van just in case)or coupon classes. It also has a compartment in the top for carrying an extra pair of scissors, sharpie or other loose items.I found this at Walmart for $9.99.

To read more about the coupon binder or "no clip" methods for coupon organization, click here and here.

I'm back up and running!

Hey everyone!

My facebook account was hacked and my computer caught a virus so I was down all day yesterday...thus no new posts.

Everything is fixed and no harm done to my computer...Praise God! Playing catch up today so hang in there with me!

Walgreens tweet promoting free items at their store ~

You know those store cashiers and sometimes managers that give us such a hard time about getting things for free with coupons?

How many times have you been told you could not use a coupon for an item because it would make it free?

Or have you ever been told by a store employee or manager that they wouldn't have allowed you to use the coupon if they had realized you would get it for free?

Today I saw a TWEET on Twitter from Walgreens3690:

Free Zantac: The 8-count box of Zantac 150 at Walgreens is just $4.99. Use this manufacturers coupon to get it free! http://bit.ly/2m3Hae

Hmmm....a Walgreens representative promoting free items at Walgreens by tweeting a coupon they found on a Money Saving blog which would make an item free......

Who woulda thought?

PRIORITIES ~

Bet you all are wondering where I've been the past several days?

Let me just be honest...LIFE has hit us (read me) square between the eyes! Have you ever had one of those weeks? Of course you have.

Between get togethers with friends, three kids in soccer, AWANA starting, BSF starting, weekly shopping, trying to find some new clothes because I've gained weight and all my jeans are too tight, meeting with my mentor, dropping stuff off at FaithWorks from Coupons for Christ, my once a month meeting with Faithful Homemakers,on top of all the everyday chores and "stuff"...WHEW! I can barely breathe.

So that's why I haven't been posting much. You might as well know that when it comes to keeping things up at home or Simple Saving Savvy, my family life wins hands down. I've been trying to keep the regular store deals posted (which by the way, I'll get to Buy for Less when I do Homeland tomorrow) but that's all I've been able to do. By next week things should be back to normal, or at least not quite as hectic, and I'll be back to the deals.

Until then...

FIVE...Count 'em....1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

You may have already heard but there should be FIVE inserts coming our way this weekend. I hope you took advantage of the lull last Labor Day weekend and got yourself organized so you'll be ready for this week!

I'm not going to post a huge preview and get you all excited over nothing (remember the Kellogg's special insert? We won't go there again) but from viewing the list, you can probably expect to see lots of General Mills (Pillsbury, Totinos, Betty Crocker, Yoplait, etc.), Schick, Airwick, Ziploc, Campbells, lots of medications (winter is on the way) and lots of pet coupons.

Oklahoma usually gets some coupons no one else gets. We'll see.

I'll post an update Saturday morning!

Blogger won't let me post photos ~ FIXED!!

Something is going on with Blogger today and it won't let me post any pictures to spice up my posts. However, I don't want you all to miss out on anything so I'm going forward with posting as usual...without pictures.

disclaimer: if you choose to continue reading without pictures, Simple Saving Savvy carries no liability for any symptoms of boredom or monotony that may occur.

No Fish ~

But plenty of this:
And an absolutely wonderful day with my hubby!

P.S. I did hook a HUGE rainbow trout. I actually got to see him fighting on top of the water but he broke my line before I could get him all the way in. Same thing happened to hubby. So there are two rainbow trout somewhere in the Illinois River with Brackney flies hooked in them. If they would have cooperated, we would have been happy to remove them and let them go free!

LABOR DAY WEEKEND - No Coupon Inserts ~

It's Labor Day weekend....there will be no coupon inserts this weekend.

Take some time off with the family and relax...and if you just feel like you have to do something, then catch up on organizing last week's coupons...and the week before that...and the week before that....

While we're on the subject...

Have any of you Savvy Savers checked out the Deal Seeking Mom coupon database? What do you think?

If about now you're wondering what I'm talking about take a "scroll" down to the bottom of this page, THERE IT IS! Try it out and tell me what you think.

Also, you have the option of setting up your own personal coupon box to keep track of your coupon inventory. I, personally, am not using it to keep track of my coupon inventory but I am using it to develop a sort of "coupon database" of my own for our area so I know where to direct you all for coupon matchups. I don't know how many times I've pulled a coupon from Hot Coupon World only to find out we didn't get that coupon after all. Hopefully this will lend more efficiency to this set up.

So check it out and let me know what you think!

And while you're organizing coupons and on your way to becoming all high tech and stuff, I'll be doing this: Yep, hubby and I are off on our very first couples flyfishing overnight trip. And by the way, it's MY first trip altogether. I've got my waders and my boots. I've been practicing my casting in the middle of our rural dead end street. But this is the real deal!

If you think about it, please pray for us. In an effort to find something we can do together besides playing with the kids (he wouldn't go for coupon shopping!), I've been begging hubby to take me flyfishing for a couple of years now. Now it's time to put my money where my mouth is. To walk the talk. I'm a bit nervous.

I'm hoping to knock his socks off by catching one of these babies:

But to be quite honest, I'll be happy to catch this:


Have a wonderful and blessed weekend with your loved ones!